Cosmic Interference

I find myself with the urge to commit some thoughts to paper, but I’m not sure which ones or how to translate them from abstract ideas to concrete words. This creative process - the translation of thought into symbols - is familiar to me, often times it is so transparent it’s automatic. But not always. Call it writers block, call it confusion, call it cosmic interference… call it laziness, call it what you will - for some reason sometimes I have to force myself to wring out the words. This is such an occasion.

I used to be obsessed with knowing why everything is just so and what creates my motivation or lack thereof. Why do some people get some things while others don’t? It goes without saying that said understanding would, of course, reveal the answer; the magic formula that would fix everything and at the same time deliver unto me all my heart’s desires - with little or no effort. I’m no longer a big fan of analyzing the minutia. Taking a break to reflect, however, never hurts and I believe I am long overdue.

Although I have not posted to this space since Monday, my keyboard has not remained silent. Regular visitors here know that writing is a huge part of my life. It dominates my professional life, my educational life and my leisure life. All of these components (and others) are equally important. Indeed, finding something that I am equally passionate about in so many key areas of life gives me lasting gratitude. Although I enjoy all of the writing I do, the writing I produce for this blog is completely unrestricted. Most of my writing lately has been regulated by form or structure.

So there’s that - maybe I have a need to be creative in an unrestricted manner. I could buy that, but it’s not the whole answer. The whole answer is far bigger. I have been waxing philosophical lately; asking myself those age old questions while observing the world around me in a detached manner. I’m wondering about things like permanence, change, time, origins and destinations. It’s nothing unique, nothing new and no, I don’t have any Einsteinian insights about what makes the universe tick.

There are vast distances in time and space from the smallest subatomic particles to the universe… and beyond? Yet it is the more social aspects of human interaction that fascinate me. The news of the world and around the corner; the good, the bad and the ugly all wrapped up in a nice 30-minute package delivered right into our living rooms. There are the freedom fighters and the terrorists, the welfare moms and the corporate robber barons, the politicians and the pickpockets - a rose by any other name? Everything is changing so fast - too fast.

I want to say that this is the most dynamic time the world has ever seen. I want to, but I can’t. It’s not true. The world is no more dynamic now than it’s ever been. The difference is that the world today is a world that I am experiencing first-hand. I’m not reading about it in some history book - I’m living it. In that respect, it is more dynamic - to me. But it’s always been a world in flux. Long before the first human ever set foot on this planet, it has been a dynamic place. Everything changes, nothing is permanent and our individual time here is insignificant to the planet’s history as a whole.

My last post was about Brad Delp, a rock star who died unexpectedly at the age of 55. He was the lead singer for Boston, a band whose music emerged at the same time I came of age. They became superstars and my generation was there right from the beginning. They had it all. Despite an enormous pool of talent, the band was only able to release two albums before the business end of the music business squelched their output for almost a decade. By the time the smoke had cleared - their time was gone. They would never reach the same pinnacle of success they enjoyed for a few fleeting years.

Delp committed suicide. He was the guy who seemingly had it all: A golden voice, fame, fortune and adulation. Yet, apparently something was amiss, something was so painful that he could not go on. He is gone, but his music is still heard. Permanence? I don’t know. What about 1,000 years down the road? 10,000? 100,000? Everything is relative and I suspect that in as little as two generations, Boston will represent little more than a historical footnote. Even the venerable Beatles, who Delp was greatly influenced by, will fade away someday. And so will we.